


What Little Remains

by Krasimer



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: A story told by three people, According to TTAZZ, F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, Introspection, June is happy, June sees Magnus as a sort-of-dad, Keats is sad, Keats is the canon spelling, Magic Brian's fiance is sort of neutral, One Big Happy Family, Other, Sad, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 09:17:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14352513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: When he was asked, he said that his siblings were heartbreaks he didn’t like to talk about.They couldn’t remember his name, not anymore, but there was a picture of him. His face was a blur and they couldn’t make it out. They could see long ears, ones that spoke of an elf of some sort – A drow?Her father was dead.June knew that, could remember what had happened, but after the time-related shenanigans in Refuge, things were sort of…Hazy.





	What Little Remains

When he was asked, he said that his siblings were heartbreaks he didn’t like to talk about.

Kravitz had to be the one to ask him, of course; not many were allowed to wander through the Astral plane. His brother and his sister, Liches and destroying so many people, had broken what was left of his heart.

His name was Keats and he only watched as what remained of them disappeared into the Eternal Stockade.

 

X

 

Their name was Kiann.

Some days, they were a she, some days they were a they. They had found a comfort in their existence, a way of living that made them happy.

They’d had a fiancé.

They couldn’t remember his name, not anymore, but there was a picture of him. His face was a blur and they couldn’t make it out. They could see long ears, ones that spoke of an elf of some sort – A drow?

Maybe?

Engravings of spiders were found on the engagement band they wore on their finger, presumably chosen by their fiancé. They could remember, clear as day, the ring they had chosen for him: a simple silver band with an engraving of a trail of butterflies. They could remember giving it to him, could remember being happy with him.

Their home was covered in wedding plans and pieces of paper that had notes about the wedding that would never happen.

Couldn’t get married to someone they couldn’t remember, after all.

 

X

 

Her father was dead.

June knew that, could remember what had happened, but after the time-related shenanigans in Refuge, things were sort of…Hazy. She had been eight and then she hadn’t been eight anymore. Years compressed into minutes, her heroes standing outside of the bubble. Everything was complicated, and she had missed so much about the world outside of Refuge and now –

Now she was the only one left to remember her mother.

Her mother had been named Tarra. With the oddness of time flowing around them and pulling back again, like waves on a beach, her memories of her mother were softened. Faded.

Like she was going to disappear, now that June was the only one left to remember her.

Her mother had gone off to visit relatives – her own, daddy’s had died when he was little like her. While she was visiting, trying to help them get out of a city that was scaring them, something had happened.

The letters had stopped coming.

June had been five.

Her daddy had waited for a time, then packed up what he could of their home and taken her with him. “To go find your mama,” he’d told her at the time. It had taken two weeks to get to where she had gone and when they got there, they had found a circle of black glass on the ground. An elf woman with short blonde hair had seen them arrive and talked to June’s daddy for a little bit, then sent them off again.

June hadn’t been included in the conversation, too little, but she remembered one phrase:

No survivors.

Her mama wouldn’t be coming home, daddy had told her. But they could find a new home to belong to.

The man in the red robe had come to guide them to Refuge, then. He had gotten them to a new home. June still remembered him trying to make her laugh, playing silly games with her on the way.

She missed him.

 

X

 

When the day of Story and Song came, it was easy to figure out what had happened.

In the Astral Plane, Keats raised his head and closed his eyes, listening to the story as it was told. His brother and sister had allowed themselves to become ruined and broken, to become nightmares given form, for the sake of something that had been broken apart and hidden from the world.

He gave quiet thanks to the seven – their Relics had destroyed his siblings, but they had meant well.

Their actions had saved his world, after all.

 

X

 

Their fiancé had been a member of a group called the Bureau of Balance.

He had gone off the deep end, had taken an un-abiding thirst for the power of a Relic into himself and become corrupt. His death had been in a cave, driven mad with want for the force of the gauntlet, far away from Kiann and from home.

Far away from their wedding preparations and from their family.

He could be said to have been far away and long-since-lost, Kiann thought as they held a small funeral for Brian. The seven had done their best and Brian’s death had been at their hands.

Kiann, despite everything that had happened and how it had all happened, did not blame them.

Brian had been the love of their life.

With the recovery of his engagement band, they wore it on a necklace with their own – maybe, just maybe, in the Astral plane, they could be together again. They could yell at him for everything he had chosen over them.

With their plans made, Kiann settled back into their life.

 

X

 

June had laughed when she saw Merle on the road, on the day of Story and Song.

Now their world was safe, their lives were assured, and she was fifteen and watching the world grow happier around her. Refuge had come to repay a debt, she thought as she wandered through the markets that lined the roads. She and the others, Paloma and Cassidy and Ren, even Roswell – they had come to pay a debt to Magnus and Merle and Taako.

The heroes of Refuge.

One of them was twicely her hero.

Magnus Burnsides, she thought as she ran careful hands over some fabric on display. The man who had saved her twice. It had a nice ring to it. He was a good man and she remembered enough about her father to compare the two.

From out of nowhere, Roswell fluttered down onto her shoulder and leaned in for a small hug.

June smiled at them and leaned into it as well.

Her family was smaller, these days, and a little scattered, but she had a good one.

 

X

 

Their souls were brought before him, once all was said and done.

Edward and Lydia were fractured and broken, small pieces of the whole they had once been. Keats, having been given a temporary form to speak to them, watched as they got their own. Lydia looked up at him and had the decency to look ashamed. Edward simply looked almost mutinous as he crossed his arms over his chest. “We didn’t know,” he said quietly.

“Didn’t know what?” Keats had pressed.

“That they were the ones who created it in the first place,” Edward had refused to look at him. “We wouldn’t have—”

“Wouldn’t have trapped them if you’d known? Drawn misery from them and tried to keep them for all eternity to fuel yourselves?” Keats had turned to watch his brother, to try and remember what he had been like before. “You trapped dozen – hundreds – of people to feed off of their misery, anger, and their hatred of you.”

Lydia had looked miserable. “We missed you.” She’d said quietly.

“Yes, well, you didn’t stop to think that maybe I would prefer my siblings not use my death as an excuse to become Liches.”

Both of them had flinched at that.

Kravitz had appeared behind them, a hand on each of their shoulders.

“I miss who you two were,” he’d told them. “And I wanted to say goodbye to those people. But you two,” it still filled Keats’s soul with grief to remember what had happened. “You two are no longer those people. You twisted and rotted everything that was left of them. To me, you two are strangers wearing their faces.”

Keats had nodded at Kravitz and the reaper had taken them away.

 

X

 

Their funeral was a small affair.

Everything they had owned went to various people – friends, family, money to the orphanages – and they were buried in their favorite outfit. The only things they had kept were two rings on a chain, butterflies and spiders circling for eternity.

Their tombstone said, “Kiann Nievers, gone to meet their fiancé and have a wedding in the afterlife”.

 

X

 

June married a man named Angus when she was twenty-six.

The greatest detective in the world, he had told her when they’d met the first time. It had been a bit of a brag but it had made her laugh. He had helped her up when she’d tripped, had helped her rearrange her dress and then her groceries and get everything back into place.

He was four years younger than her.

Before she’d met his family, he had warned her that it was big and full of interesting people. Some of them would be intense, he’d said.

When they had walked through the doors of the mansion, Angus had nearly been bowled over by an overexcited elf with blond hair, followed by a nearly identical female one. In between the hugs and the joking reprimands of “Dinner is in twenty minutes, where _have_ you _been_?”, Angus had managed to wiggle free and take her hand in his.

When she got a good look at the elves, June began laughing and nearly didn’t stop.

Taako and Lup, for that was who they were, simply stared at her until she actually did manage to stop. When her laughter had subsided, June held out a hand and smiled. “My name is June,” she told the elf who had been one of her heroes.

“Ango,” Taako said quietly. “What the fuck.”

“Taako!” Angus’s cheeks didn’t often show when he flushed, but she could tell he was embarrassed by the wizard. “Please don’t scare her off, I like her.”

June flushed as well, her cheeks a bright pink. “I think what Taako means is that he saved me and my town, once.” She smiled at Angus, taking a moment to squeeze his hand. “I’m from Refuge. Not originally, mind, but from when they had to go there and save it. And retrieve a Relic.”

“Oh!” Angus smiled at her, eyes wide as he looked at her with a new sort of wonder in them.

Leaning into his hold as he took her face in his hands, June hummed happily.

They married a year later.

It was mostly, June said to those who asked her, because she’d heard Angus telling Magnus and Taako that she was a mystery he wanted to keep solving forever.

Magnus walked her down the aisle.

June thinks, when it is happening, that her father is watching over her and approving. Maybe even walking with her, in a way.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope someone likes this, my writing style shifted weirdly while writing it.
> 
> Surprise! In this story, Angus married June!


End file.
